First Chapters Readers Wanted - Blindsided (Contemporary Dramatic Fiction)

Blindsided

Brian Palmer

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976933692

Synopsis: Kate Rowland is a closed off, twenty-something widow who works at a tiny bookstore, choosing to entertain herself by occasionally visiting with her family, going to baseball games alone, or surprising customers with unexpected questions. Most of the time she's thinking about her dead husband and daughter, though most people wouldn't know it since she doesn't open up to anyone.

Sean Parker is a voracious book reader who is popular with the ladies and thinks highly enough of himself without being completely arrogant. He jumps into relationships quicker than he should, and his heart pays the price in the end. One relationship in particular has haunted him every single day for the two years since it ended, and it is the reason he has jumped from one woman to the next almost indiscriminately.

When Sean meets Kate at the bookstore, he is taken with her and attempts to get to know her, with little success. When she does finally give him a chance, however, they both find that there is a lot more to the other than they suspected.

Complicating matters is the fractured relationship Sean and his professional baseball playing brother, Lance, have with their father, Gary. He divorced their mother over 10 years ago, but neither of them ever explained why it happened. And the circumstances surrounding their mother's death from cancer many years later is still suspicious to them though it doesn't seem to bother anyone else. Gary dodges their questions for years until finally deciding to reveal a dark secret that tears him and his sons even further apart. This also proves to be the catalyst for Sean and Kate's relationship, as he finally begins to let his guard down about some things he has kept hidden. Sean hates his father and doesn't want to be anything like him, and once he learns about his father's secret, it will force him to have to make a hard choice of his own.